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Growing up, I never thought I had an accent. Despite my Colombian-Cuban heritage, I didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. Even now, my Spanish is pretty poor. I can order my favorite breakfast at the cafeterías my family frequents in South Florida or hold minimal conversations, but that’s about it. I was the first “no sabo” kid in my family, or non-Spanish-speaking child of a Hispanic family. Aside from that, my family members who were native Spanish speakers never seemed to have an accent to me. Growing up between both Miami-Dade and Broward counties meant that most of my life was spent around people speaking some form of Spanish or Spanglish.
So, fast forward to the first time I ever traveled up North to visit my aunt in Colorado. Upon meeting people throughout the small mountain towns we visited, we faced two odd instances. In some towns, people were trying to guess our nationality, much to my prideful Colombian mother’s dismay. In others, I was quite surprised to have people ask my mother and me where we came from, since our accents were so “exotic.”
It turns out that my family — and many other families in Miami-Dade and Broward — do have an accent, as well as our own dialect. In 2022, FIU sociolinguist Philip M. Carter and FIU master’s student Kristen D’Alessandro Merii published a study acknowledging the background, development, and production of what is now known as Miami English. Miami English has been an ever-growing language thanks to the nearly 70% and 30% Hispanic populations in Miami-Dade and Broward, respectively. However, its origins, according to Carter’s study, date back to 1959 when many Cuban immigrants, like my own grandparents and great-grandparents, began to settle in South Florida. They migrated to escape the Cuban Revolution, which overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista and led to Fidel Castro’s rise to power.
Now, users not only include those native, predominantly Spanish-speaking immigrants and citizens, but also their second, third, and fourth-generation native English-speaking descendants.
“When you have a situation such as that which took place in Miami, where the immigrant group becomes the local majority, things can get passed down to first-language speakers of the language, namely the children of immigrants, and then their grandchildren.”
Philip M. Carter, NBC
However, despite its Spanish roots, there is a notable difference between Miami English and Spanglish. Spanglish involves using hybrid grammar and code-switching, where speakers intertwine Spanish and English words within a sentence/phrase. An example of this switching can be found in the song “I Like It” by Cardi B, Bad Bunny, and J Balvin (a hit on Miami radio stations, by the way): “Pa-pa-paparazzi like I’m Lady Gaga; y no te me hagas, que en cover de Billboard tú has visto mi cara.”
This verse, sung by J Balvin, recounts his growth in fame by referencing Lady Gaga in English, then his own Billboard magazine cover in Spanish. Of course, some of these Spanglish phrases still exist in Miami. One example that is popularly used is “pero like,” which takes the Spanish word for “but” instead of just saying, “but like.”
Miami English, however, is more of a translation of Spanish than the direct insertion of it in the spoken word. Both Carter’s study and the Linguistics and Cognitive Science student and TikTok creator, Isaiah Dupree, discuss the use of calques in Miami English. Calques are word-for-word translations of phrases in other languages, including the exact grammatical structures of those phrases. A super popular example of this that might sound weird to the non-Miamian ear is “get down from the car,” which is a calque of “bajar del carro.”
Other calques and Spanish features have stuck around in Miami. One of the most widely used calques is the word “carne.” Cities like Hialeah, Doral, Miami, and Little Havana are heavily populated with Hispanic bakeries and restaurants. Most, if not all, will have at least one dish or pastelito with beef, or “con carne.” However, the word “carne” itself literally means meat. So, if a Miamian were to order their favorite Vicky’s Bakery, Sergio’s, or Don Pan empanadas con carne, it would technically translate to “empanada with beef.”
Another, more vulgar example, is a response to a question. If you ask a Miamian what they’re doing, and they’re not doing anything super important, they may respond, “eating sh*t.” This translates from the Spanish phrase, “comiendo mierda.” Hopefully, you never hear the phrase directed at you in whichever language; it usually means the person thinks you’re wasting time.
Other small, phonetic calques have also made their way into everyday Miami speech. As someone who’s studied phonetics and the International Phonetic Alphabet, I’ve heard and understood these phonetic changes every time I’ve visited home. Two examples of these are “supposably” and “irregardless.” Also considered colloquialisms, or informal pronunciations of words in informal settings, these change or add phonetic sounds that don’t typically occur with the existing English word. The “d” in “supposedly” is shifted to the “b” phoneme, while the “ir” phonemes are added to the beginning of the word “regardless.” A similar phonetic addition calque is the phrase “thanks God,” which adds an “s” to “thank” in reference to the Spanish phrase, “Gracias a Dios.”
Now, let’s back track a bit. Notice how I’ve used “super” in the last few paragraphs? “Super” is one of the most popular phrases in Miami English. You don’t say it’s “very hot,” it’s “super hot,” and it’s not “really cute,” it’s “super cute,” and so on. This has no definitive calque origin, but it’s one of the landmark adjectives and words used in Miami, in my opinion. But if there’s one word that beats out “super” for first place in Miami usage, it’s “literally.” Like, literally bro, you cannot escape this word in Miami. It’s used to emphasize just about anything and everything. I myself will say literally for literally anything: “I literally hate it here,” or “I literally can’t bro.”
As you can see, “bro” is another word that gets thrown around South Florida a lot.
But why does this even matter? Well, this Hispanic Heritage Month, I think it’s a beautiful phenomenon that we, both Miamians and the world, have been able to witness in real time. On one hand, it gives us a sense of identity and uniqueness in the world. To actively create and speak in a relatively new dialect and accent allows a sense of belonging, especially to many of us “no sabo” kids who still struggle with the feeling of being ousted for not speaking proper Spanish. It also helps us feel connected with our communities and families, even if we’re across the state, country, or world.
Often, hearing people comment on my subtle accent and habits reminds me of driving around Miami-Dade with my mom. On the other hand, it shows the perseverance and contributions of the Miami people, and that’s what Hispanic Heritage Month is all about. Without the immigrants who sought haven in the ’50s and ’60s, or their descendants, the city would most likely not be the beautiful, rich cultural landscape it is now.